18 replies to this topic

[Chris]

If you've ever tried to visit the TGTAP homepage on your mobile phone you will have noticed it's huge and it probably took quite some time to load fully. Well, good news is I've been working on an extremely optimised, lightweight layout for mobile devices.

It's now at the stage where there's not much left to add, and testing needs to be done. I have an iPhone 4 and an older Android 2.3 device which I can test it on, but there are thousands more devices out there that I don't have access to. So I'd like you guys to help test it, whatever device you have, as long as it has internet access and a web browser.

All you need to do is head over to m.thegtaplace.com on your device and just browse the site a bit, use the search, check it works as you would expect it to, and then post here and let me know if it's fine or if there were some issues.

For reference, here's a screenshot of what the website should look something like, taken from my iPhone:
 photo.PNG   231.02K   3 downloads

It would be totally awesome if you could provide as much detail as possible, if you could post here using a template like this one:

[b]Device:[/b]
[b]OS Version:[/b]
[b]Browser (and version, if known):[/b]
[b]Notes:[/b]

Some things you can test:

• Search - if you start typing a few letters does the dropdown appear with results like it does on the main website?
  
  • Also, does the search bar stay at the top as you scroll down the page? Or, does it go off the screen?
• Rotating - if your device supports it, does the site work fine in both portrait and landscape orientations?
• Scrolling - You should only be able to scroll up and down. Can you scroll left and right? If so, this is a bug, please tell me about this if it happens.
• Please Note: The forums already have a built in mobile skin. There is no need to test this part of the site as it is not made by me.

*iPhone/iPod touch users:
I have an iPhone with iOS5 on it, but if you have an older device and older OS it would be nice to hear from you. I think it should be fine but better be sure!
Also if you're not using Mobile Safari and are instead using a browser from the App Store such as Skyfire, Opera, Mercury, or iCab etc. please post here as I can't test all of these, except Opera.

*Android users:
Please be specific when posting here. There are a ton of device, OS version and browser combinations out there. The default Android browser on Android 2.1 and above is my priority, however I'm also keen to have it working as decent as possible on Firefox Mobile, Opera Mobile, Opera mini, Skyfire, Dolphin etc.

*Everyone else:
Chances are your default browser will be fine. If you have the option, Opera Mobile or Opera Mini would probably be your best option.


Ok I think that's all. Thanks a lot in advance to anyone who posts back here, I'll try to reply to everyone who experiences any issues and get them fixed ASAP. Aiming to launch the site next week if possible!

[Chris]

Device: iPhone 4
OS Version: 5.0.1
Browser (and version, if known): Mobile Safari 5
Notes:
Everything is fine!

[Huckleberry Pie]

Might try this one on my Galaxy 5 and my dad's Tab.

[amazingdude]

Sounds good for my smart phone.

[Chris]

I should probably point out it's intended specifically for phones and other small devices, rather than tablets. Tablets have big enough screens to handle the full website in most cases. If you could test it on your Galaxy 5 though that would be helpful, thanks

[EvoLuTioN]

Device: Samsung Galaxy 3
OS Version: Android 2.2 Froyo
Browser (and version, if known): Stock
Notes:Main site looks good, Download section header stretches out a bit.

Screenshot off Chrome, Looks similar in the mobile browser.

Edited by EvoLuTioN, 28 January 2012 - 04:43 AM.

[NotYouHaha]

I can't download attachment. I get error #10171, no permission.
Device:iPod Touch 2G
OS Version:iOS 4.2.1
Browser (and version, if known):Safari, likely the latest one available for my device version
Notes:

• No drop down on search box, but I'm guessing this is intentionally done for older devices?
• Tiny thing, the black box does not expand to fit text on article pages. ex. "View/Comments (You need to..." on m.thegtaplace.comnews/27350/gta-iii-for-android-updated-ios-update-coming-soon/#comments
• When rotating from portrait to landscape, the page (such as m.thegtaplace.com/topdown/) does not automatically fit to screen size.

Nothing major.

Edited by NotYouHaha, 28 January 2012 - 06:03 AM.

[Chris]

@Evo; Yeah I wasn't actually planning on optimising the downloads section for mobile since it's not like you can do anything with the mods you download. They require a PC. That said, I think it's just the header part that causes the stretching so I could either change that or remove it completely and the rest should be fine. Will look at it later.

@NYH: Ah this is exactly why I wanted people with older iDevices to comment. There should be a dropdown on the search box, I haven't done anything that would prevent it showing on older devices. When I first tried it on my iPhone it wasn't appearing but now it always does. Can you try again but wait like 2 seconds after typing a few letters and see if it then appears. Start typing 'Che' as if you were gonna search for Cheats as that brings back loads of results.
I think it's to do with how iOS handles autocorrect... as you're typing the word, it's not actually input into the text box until you either finish the word or cancel the correcting. I'll see if I can force a way to make it show but I'm not sure there's much I can do. But yeah let me know if you try it again.

Will fix the view comments bug later that's easy, thanks for noticing that, I somehow missed it!

Yes I noticed the rotation thing too. It's quite annoying. I can fix it by setting user-scalable=no but then users can't zoom in/out on ANY device and it's highly recommended NOT to do this as it breaks expected functionality of the browser for the user, so I don't want to do that. I'll try to find another way to make it auto fit on rotation.

[Chris]

Tiny thing, the black box does not expand to fit text on article pages. ex. "View/Comments (You need to..." on m.thegtaplace.comnews/27350/gta-iii-for-android-updated-ios-update-coming-soon/#comments

This has now been fixed. Refreshing the page if you still have it in your browser should show it properly now.

When rotating from portrait to landscape, the page (such as m.thegtaplace.com/topdown/) does not automatically fit to screen size.

This seems to be a bug in Safari. There's nothing I can do to fix this unless I disable zooming. I'll try and get more opinions on that but at the moment I'm not particularly keen on disabling features on people's phones.

Download section header stretches out a bit.

This has been fixed.

[amazingdude]

Its good browsing the main page on my old java J2ME MIDP 2.0 version samsung. Search seems to be working perfectly.

oh and it uses Operamini browser 4.4

[NotYouHaha]

@NYH: Ah this is exactly why I wanted people with older iDevices to comment. There should be a dropdown on the search box, I haven't done anything that would prevent it showing on older devices. When I first tried it on my iPhone it wasn't appearing but now it always does. Can you try again but wait like 2 seconds after typing a few letters and see if it then appears. Start typing 'Che' as if you were gonna search for Cheats as that brings back loads of results. I think it's to do with how iOS handles autocorrect... as you're typing the word, it's not actually input into the text box until you either finish the word or cancel the correcting. I'll see if I can force a way to make it show but I'm not sure there's much I can do. But yeah let me know if you try it again.

Actually, I can't get a drop down box to appear on my iPod or my desktop browsers in fact.

Also, does the search bar stay at the top as you scroll down the page? Or, does it go off the screen?

i just noticed that the search bar goes off the screen on my device.

[Chris]

Oh yeah you're right. I must have broken that somehow. Was working before so that's obviously something I've done while messing about. Will look into that and fix tomorrow.

Yeah the search bar will go off the screen on almost every single browser. I think Safari 5 (the version with iOS5) is one of the only mobile browsers that properly supports fixed positioning. Still, it's not a major issue.

[Chris]

Actually, I can't get a drop down box to appear on my iPod or my desktop browsers in fact.

This has now been fixed. Thanks. Can you confirm it now works? (May need to clear cache)

[NotYouHaha]

Actually, I can't get a drop down box to appear on my iPod or my desktop browsers in fact.

This has now been fixed. Thanks. Can you confirm it now works? (May need to clear cache)

Yep, it is working well now.

[Meshy]

Hello I am a new member to The GTA Place so I'm basically a long time fan, my favourite in the series is San Andreas.

Anyways enough ''introductions'' lets get started.

Device:HTC Wildfire
OS Version: 2.3 (Rooted)
Browser: Dolphin Browser HD, Opera Mini, Deafult Android Browser ( all latest versions) (and version, if known):
Notes: Super Speedy. No bugs. Opera Mini does not display the advert.

Edited by DarkMeshy, 02 March 2012 - 10:28 PM.

[Chris]

Thanks for this, I'll have to look into that Opera Mini, seems there's some alignment issues with the game icons too.

Did the ad display on the other browsers? Since your phone is rooted maybe you have a hosts file blocking popular ad servers?

[Meshy]

Thanks for this, I'll have to look into that Opera Mini, seems there's some alignment issues with the game icons too.

Did the ad display on the other browsers? Since your phone is rooted maybe you have a hosts file blocking popular ad servers?

Yes, Chris it did in the other browsers.

See it does work in my other browsers ^^^



Oh and naughty Opera Mini's having more problems!!

Edited by DarkMeshy, 02 March 2012 - 11:39 PM.

[Chris]

That's actually the ad pushing the width out. I actually had no idea Android worked on such low resolution devices. In fact I wasn't even aware they were still made lol. I'll see if I can do anything but really I think there will be more problems with the content at such a small resolution, can't really do anything about that without compromising the site for other users too much.

[Meshy]

Haha. I don't use my phone much. It was out in 2009.
But of course, Android needs more users and not everyone can afford SGS II I mean I spend my money mostly on my Education. I brought my phone with my own money. Not from our 'parents' by myself you hear that kids?